Time Travellin' #1

I have a girlfriend, KoKo, who I've had feels like forever, but really 19 years. She kept the letters I wrote to her from the time we graduated high school and the years just beyond 4 years of college for her and life for me. She mailed them back to me. I've had a great time identifying who I was then and how much of me has always been the same. I feel like sharing this 1 in honor of Sisterhood. I love you, Girl!!

1 august 98

mz koko

i never got around to telling you the impact of seeing ntozake shange and verta mae with you. i was moved to come home and write immediately, and was able to find new inspiration in things i had overlooked before. i found new times of day and the beauty of writing by candlelight at 2 am (however bad for my eyes) and how sunrise can make you feel things you thought only people could make you feel, but with no strings attached. listening to them speak helped me see that all the sides to my personality (i call them the crew) are ok. i had problems with them being there and wasn't trying to pay attention to them. they're ok. and they have some kinda kool things to say.

the beauty of the revelation and being able to share it with you was so special to me. you are so special to me. as i've said before, i may not spend as much creative energy on expression as you do, but i do think about you all the time and wish i had the time to sit and think about a truly appropriate gift for the way i feel about you. and so when i come up with you'll know.

now i'm even more excited about the two of us sharing this rite of passage into the circle of afrikan womanhood. there is no other sista on this planet, that i have met, that i would rather share this rite with. there are so many things about you that, to me, embody what a young afrikan woman in america should be. and if there was ever a woman close to my age that i would choose as a role model, it would be you. that is not to say that i believe your life to be perfect and carefree, but i admire the way you carry yourself, weigh your decisions and then move on them. there should be very little that will ever stand in the way of you achieving your goals. i likes that about you. so in the coming weeks approaching what should be a beautiful day and a wonderful occasion, my excitement grows because you will be my sister in yet another way.

i love you so much.



even then...

this is how i moved.